City of Static
by Spake
Summary: Life in the city is hard, and is only made harder when you don't want to be there and everyone you encounter is from a different universe than yours. This is a story about simple existence in the city of static.


We don't really know why we're here.

City Station to Contemporary Lane, my beat, the Center Line, just south of the new ZPD HQ on 8th Avenue and one of the main patrols guarding the city center- an important assignment to have, and one I've had since we first reclaimed the area.

I don't think any of us asked to end up here.

I got my uniform on- standard procedure for patrolling if you were part of the Department- you could wear whatever you want if you were working beyond your zone but if you were doing your patrol you repped ZPD. Bogo said it provided a sense of normalcy to the other Zootopia refugees, but I don't think it really helps much.

Every day I ask myself the same questions: why us? What is this place? Why are we the way we are now? Every day I ask, and every day I get no answers.

Standard patrol procedures dictate we move in a group of five- one for every direction and then a backup- a tactic that normally would be impossible thanks only a portion of the ZPD ending up in this place, but doable since desperation encourages cooperation even amongst otherworldly strangers. I walked out of the locker room to meet my team for the day- there was Judy and Finnick of course, Yax of all people since he ended up particularly blessed by this city's weirdness, and then the odd one out- a fox about twice as tall as me garbed like he came straight from Medieval Times who carried a bow and went by Robin Hood. He and Yax were semi-regular with the crew but since they weren't Department official they weren't obligated to patrol, so sometimes their positions would be filled by someone else. Of course Finnick wasn't ZPD official either but apparently friendship means enough to him that he continues to have my back day after day.

Turning to Judy I asked, "So Carrots, any word from around where we're working? Anything we need to keep an eye out for?" She gave a bit of a wry smile, as she always does when I call her Carrots in front of the patrol team, and replied "Yeah operations over night in the Middle Burroughs kind of stirred up the hive, so looks like it's gonna be a busy day. Reports are indicating we should expect mecharaptors and skeletons so keep your distance and be extra careful Yax." He nodded and stated in his typical drawl "Oh yeah well I always try to be extra careful so don't worry about me Officer Hopps." She smiled and acknowledged it with a "Great! By the way, good to see you again Robin!" He tipped his hat and gave a "Always a pleasure to work with the ZPD- though I must admit I will always find working with the law a bit strange." Finnick smirked and said, "You and me both! But hey at least you didn't go all the way and get yourself a badge like Nick here." He still hadn't forgiven me completely for going straight- not that I could really blame him.

"That's really all I've heard so assuming everyone is ready let's get going!" Judy piped up, surveying everyone to make sure they were, in fact, ready to go. With that, Finnick hoisted his massive popsicle over his shoulder while Yax began to levitate in the lotus position.

I should probably pause and explain something important before going further.

When we were sent to this city, we were more than just suddenly transported across space and possibly time- we were changed in various weird ways. It was like certain parts of us were exaggerated and made manifest- like with Yax it took his yoga styling and transformed it into some sort of mysticism, and with Finnick is hijacked the popsicle hustle and gave him possession of this massive constantly-on-the-edge-of-melting popsicle that somehow was an effective weapon, and as for me? Well it hijacked that hustle for me too- since every time I reach into my pocket there's a frozen pawpsicle there- and when I toss it at a creep it's like a lacerated them with a throwing star. I mean I'm pretty sure it wasn't as weird for everyone- like Judy just got even better at kickboxing and for all I know Robin Hood was always great with a bow- but the first time I saw Yax levitate it about blew my mind.

Anyway, Judy took the lead and without further ado we headed out of the HQ, heading south to do what we needed to do. The streets were quiet- but they always were when there wasn't a fight going on. Not counting the creeps, the original inhabitants of this city (if you could call them that) were like shadows or holograms- you could see them in the midst of various errands but they would flicker in and out of existence silently. That just left us refugees to make any noise- and compared to Zootopia it was nothing. What made it stranger is that all the lights that would indicate a bustling city were on- and the traffic lights were fully functional- but other than us, there was no one to use them. I suppose I should consider us lucky though, without them things would be a lot more difficult given that it was a perpetual overcast twilight. I've been using terms like night and day but that's really just something we established- the light here never changes.

As we headed to our patrol's starting point I got to observe a few others who had ended up here- and it was quite the motley assortment. Whatever pulled us here didn't discriminate and seemed to have pulled from all across the universe- there were a fair amount us Zootopians but there were also a lot of tall furless fellows called "humans"- and then there were such oddities as those who walked like ferals but talked like the rest of us, those who seemed to be composed of machinery, and even weirder folks. One commonality unites us all though it seems: one moment we were where we normally were, the next we were here in this twilight city. That alone seemed to put a lot of bad blood on ice- at least from those I've talked to- the problems of the old world fading into the past in the face of the new.

Center Line was a patrol through a canyon of steel, glass, and concrete, and if any of the stores were actually functional it'd be a high-end shopping district. It wasn't the easiest patrol but it was far from the hardest, and given its proximity to the heart of the city keeping it free of infestation was a top priority. Judy took point along with Finnick, while I kept the middle, and Robin Hood covered Yax in the rear. For the moment it was normal, which is to say it was quiet, with not even wind to provide background noise as we began our patrol in earnest. The silence always gave time to think, for good or for ill, and the topic my brain decided to drift to was what laid beyond the city. We knew we were surrounded by water, and further out surrounded by fog, and anyone who sailed into the fog inevitably ends up turned around and sailing right back to where they came from- but the weird thing was although we couldn't leave, things could emerge from the fog that aren't from the city. I mean Duke Weaselton of all people manages a thriving import business but he imports from what may as well be nowhere. He pays electronically to randomly named companies after depositing coins creeps drop into various terminals, and then the goods he orders arrive on ghost ships piloted by nothing- and as soon as they're unloaded off they go back into the fog. The only reason I think Duke is still sane is he's used to not asking questions. If it were me, I might try to stow away on one of those ghost ships- but then, I'm not sure where I'd go, or if I would ever get back…

My meandering thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the faint sounds of static in the distance- the tell-tale sign of creeps on the horizon. "Creeps incoming!" I called out, causing the group's formation to tighten up around Yax and me. We began to move forward as my ears twitched, zeroing in on the noise that was coming from just behind the next corner- Judy's own ears doing the same as she gestured towards that direction. Judy and Finnick would take point with the rest of us covering them. On Judy's signal we stepped around the corner with weapons ready and sighted our first group of creeps for the night.

Most creeps were a variant unique to this city- something we had to label with terms like "blob" or "skeleton"- but some creeps were a variety more disturbing than that. As we turned the corner we saw the blue-tinged body of myself- the only non-blue part of the figure being pupiless eyes that gazed at us with a soulless stare. Whatever controlled the creeps had saw fit to make copies of all of us, complete with all of our abilities and tactics, and when we were particularly unlucky (like today) we had to fight ourselves. If I had to look on the bright side out of all the creeps we saw the only copies were of myself and a gun-toting marine woman I worked with occasionally named Calhoun. The rest were mere ninja creeps- easy to deal with.

Within moments Judy and Finnick had entered the fray- Finnick swinging his jumbo pop forcefully and causing a glob of its stickiness to hit the nearest ninja while Judy assaulted it with her kickboxing. I reached into my pocket only to notice the other Nick doing the same thing, and rather than go after the ninjas I suddenly turned and threw a pawpsicle with precision at the false fox's shoulder. It made contact and the pawpsicle cut into the being blue flesh before melting- it not even being phased as it tosses its own pawpsicle at Finnick.

Unfortunately, we have a major disadvantage compared to creeps: we feel pain. The pawpsicle flew through the air right into one of Finnick's large ears- cutting through it like paper. Finnick gave out a muffled cry of pain before turning with gritted teeth and swinging his jumbo pop down onto the ground- creating a shockwave that stunned the fake me for a few seconds. "You always did want to get a piercing…" I commented sardonically as I reached into my pocket once more, Finnick only responding with "Shut the hell up Nick" as blood dripped down towards the base of his ear. A ninja trying to exploit the situation got behind Finnick- only to have its head obliterated with a well-placed arrow from Robin Hood. "Just hold on a bit and Yax or I will patch you right up" Robin said, maintaining a tone of optimism, as he turned to his next target. Yax for his part was finishing up a glowing mandala which from its center brought forth what could only be described as a magic missile.

I wanted the other Nick out of action as soon as possible, and so with a little bit of focus and a whole lot of spite I concentrated and the one pawpsicle in my pocket suddenly became three in my hand. With a rapid motion I flung all three of them at the center of the enemy fox, cutting him in the forehead, neck, and chest. That followed up by Yax's magic brought him to his knees, and I got to experience why everyone hates going against themselves. Creeps don't feel pain in combat- that much is obvious- but when they're about to be destroyed? Well then I can't say one way or the other. The other Nick brought his paw to his chest as an agonized expression crossed his face, his other paw reaching out as if begging for help from some unknown god- only for him to collapse forward onto the concrete and ever so slowly begin to fade away. I'm still alive, yet I've seen myself killed in action too many times to count- and many of them occurring by my own hand... I don't sleep very well anymore.

In a way it's lucky that I was spared rumination thanks to a grenade from Calhoun. The orb immediately bursting into an explosion that singed a majority of my front side and knocked me backwards. For a moment I was blind and in great pain before the agony began to fade away and my vision cleared to reveal Yax channeling his healing ability to all of us- patching up Finnick's ear while also bringing me back to functionality. I didn't have time to mentally recover, I only had time to fight, as I threw a pawpsicle right back at Calhoun. She turned from an approaching Judy just in time to catch it in her forehead, and down she went wordlessly.

With the main threats taken out the few ninjas remaining were easy to mop up, leaving various trinkets for us to collect and bring back to base. No one really knew why they carried such things, but from trial and error it was known that the right trinkets given to the right persons could cause a long-lasting empowering effect- something that was invaluable in this warzone of a city. As we picked the stuff up Judy gave a loud "Rally up!" as we turned towards her and reassured our squad positions. "Anyone injured?" Judy asked, looking everyone over quickly- "I still have a few scratches on me but I'm alright" Finnick replied. "Got any extra juice Yax?" Judy inquired, only for him to shake his head, "Sorry Judy, with the adrenaline wearing off and all I don't have the energy to use on fixing just a few scratches up." Judy nodded her head understandingly, well aware a lot of abilities used by various people were momentum based and if not used in the moment couldn't be used at all. "Well, let's keep going then, patrol isn't over yet!" she said authoritatively, leading us forward.

The rest of the patrol was more predictable- we found the mecharaptors and skeletons we were expecting- and though metal and bone was always difficult to deal with they didn't hide any surprises like our copies did. If you kept your guard up, you could almost take them out systematically- you got used to them basically. It made the rest of the patrol almost easy- which I was thankful for- fighting myself always got my stomach twisted and until I could relax it generally stayed that way.

We headed back to HQ to end our day, Clawhauser greeting us as cheerily as ever even despite the fact he has to deal with a lot less cushy world than he's used to, and Judy headed to Chief Bogo to give her patrol summary. I waited outside his office for her while the rest of the group dispersed, and I caught sight of the squad we were switching off with: a dark-furred feral lion, a human woman in a black cloak with horns and a staff, another woman with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a squid, a skeleton-looking man in a suit, and a mouse who could almost be mistaken for Zootopian if he wasn't roughly fifty times larger than any Zootopian mouse. The mouse, skeleton, and squid-woman seemed to be discussing something excitedly, while the lion and witch-looking woman just gazed in their direction with stern expressions of unamusement. Around the time Judy came back out of the office they departed with the witch-woman taking the lead.

"Chief have any words for us or are we good to go?" I asked Judy, and she replied "Oh just the usual 'Good work, remember to record everything you find before turning it in, blah blah blah,' so yeah we're good to go!" I smiled at her as we left the HQ for home, always happy to bask in her good spirits in this strange city of static.


End file.
